May is going to be a great month. I can feel it! Let's start by going over the content of this patch!

The Stalker Hero 'Mech "Misery" sure does live up to its name, with a paint job that reflects its war torn soul and the hard points to cause plenty of misery on the battlefield. Just check out this trailer to see what I mean! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVnkBs9WQMM

A new Trial 'Mech Champion! The Jenner JR7-F(C). This is a legendary developer build that has been tearing through Atlas armour since closed Beta. Give it a spin and prepare to be tempted to purchase this Champion 'Mech on May 21st.

After making you wait long enough, you can now change the colours on your Hero 'Mech. We can't wait to see what kind of colour combinations you guys create.

We have a real treat for you, the Buccaneer custom pattern! I asked Alex (Flying Debris) what his inspiration was and this is what he said. I was imagining "Some crazy, bearded, malnourished man with missing teeth going to work with a paint roller in the 'Mech hanger while indulging in questionable substances. This mech painting bender happened after the force he was attached to made off with thirty tons of potatoes, women's shoes, and stereo equipment,from the last backwater planet they raided". Ok Alex. I am just going to back away slowly now. Plenty of hidden messages in this cool custom pattern can you spot them all?

New 'Mech statue Cockpit items added to round out the customization.

We have some good improvements and fixes as well, to clean up functionality and stability.

You should also be aware we are working hard to address the HUD issues and are getting closer to a solution.

- Fixed an issue where users were being disconnected during game. - Fix for possible soft lock users experienced while playing a match. - Fixed a crash that some users experienced when the end of round screen timer ran out and they were kicked back to the Mech Lab. - Fix multiple control rebind issues. - Fix for 'Mechs losing the ~1km/h with speed tweak. - Fixed a black screen bug that could happen to users after the loading screen.

Known Issues

- HUD issues. - We will be pushing a hot fix for this issue as soon as it is addressed.

We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!

Me too. I'm less experienced on the macro side of the house, but might be nice to get a few for some of my mechs that require better heat juggling. HBK-4P, I'm lookin' at you.

Patch Notes wrote:

Bug Fixes

- Fixed an issue where users were being disconnected during game.- Fix for possible soft lock users experienced while playing a match.- Fixed a crash that some users experienced when the end of round screen timer ran out and they were kicked back to the Mech Lab.- Fix multiple control rebind issues.- Fix for 'Mechs losing the ~1km/h with speed tweak. - Fixed a black screen bug that could happen to users after the loading screen.

While the HUD problems are still infuriating, I really hope to see less disconnects/crashes. That, alone, was really pissing me off because of the "random but actually targeting your assaults" nature of the bug.

Looks to be a pretty small patch overall. Glad to see some of the CTD issues addressed though. Knowing them though this means that instead of crashing/hanging, you screen will now go technicolor and and display abstract artifacts...AGAIN.

Also, a stalker with a ballistic? Hello 4xPPC+Gauss looking at the hardpoints. Just what this game needed, another boat.

- Fixed an issue where users were being disconnected during game.- Fix for possible soft lock users experienced while playing a match.- Fixed a crash that some users experienced when the end of round screen timer ran out and they were kicked back to the Mech Lab.- Fix multiple control rebind issues.- Fix for 'Mechs losing the ~1km/h with speed tweak. - Fixed a black screen bug that could happen to users after the loading screen.

While the HUD problems are still infuriating, I really hope to see less disconnects/crashes. That, alone, was really pissing me off because of the "random but actually targeting your assaults" nature of the bug.

I may be one of the very, very few people who actually somewhat enjoy having a broken HUD every so often. Sure, it's an enormous disadvantage to you as a player and a huge pain in the ass as a customer of a reasonably broken/working (choose one!) game, but it creates a challenge for the player. It's a challenge to see how good you are at reading the situation.

When your IFF has gone out, you rely on your minimap to determine friend from foe. Once you've remembered who's a friend from teh spawn point, follow their lead, determine who they are shooting at and assist them. Or if you've locked on to a target, say a Stalker, but there's two Stalkers in your view, you can watch what they do to determine which of the Stalkers you've locked on to (if the radar view says they have 6 MLs and 4 SRMs, you'll immediately notice it as soon as they start shooting). The alternative to this is to peck at them with a single ML or SL, and watch if your radar lock shows them taking damage.

When your map is out, well that's not a problem since you don't need a map to figure out where people really are when in visual range.

I do look forward to having less DC's. I've actually never been DC'd, but I have crashed out once and I experience the blackouts probably once a week.

When your IFF has gone out, you rely on your minimap to determine friend from foe.

Um...here's the problem. Typically, when my IFF goes out, I don't have a minimap either. Not too bad if I'm in a cluster of friends. But absolutely atrocious after a few minutes when we get split up. I once popped a friendly HBK-4G who came around a corner like this because he was turning right at me and I couldn't tell. Nor did he type anything in at that point.

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Major patches are twice per month, but when they combine a new chassis with a new map, yeah, that's the bigger one.

I kinda wish they hadn't left so much for the mid-month. Given the promise to adjust missile damage and BAP, that's a much larger skew to the metagame.

When your IFF has gone out, you rely on your minimap to determine friend from foe.

Um...here's the problem. Typically, when my IFF goes out, I don't have a minimap either. Not too bad if I'm in a cluster of friends. But absolutely atrocious after a few minutes when we get split up. I once popped a friendly HBK-4G who came around a corner like this because he was turning right at me and I couldn't tell. Nor did he type anything in at that point.

Well, the solution to that is point your crosshairs right at him and see if you can target him. You'll target whoever is under your reticles first. If you can't target him, he's a friendly.

When your IFF has gone out, you rely on your minimap to determine friend from foe.

Um...here's the problem. Typically, when my IFF goes out, I don't have a minimap either. Not too bad if I'm in a cluster of friends. But absolutely atrocious after a few minutes when we get split up. I once popped a friendly HBK-4G who came around a corner like this because he was turning right at me and I couldn't tell. Nor did he type anything in at that point.

Well, the solution to that is point your crosshairs right at him and see if you can target him. You'll target whoever is under your reticles first. If you can't target him, he's a friendly.

Yeah...except when I push the button and hear "target acquired", that doesn't have to be him. That can be anyone in range of a friendly, remember?

Yeah...except when I push the button and hear "target acquired", that doesn't have to be him. That can be anyone in range of a friendly, remember?

If you've got your crosshairs on them, the system will try to target them first (unless say you're 700m out). So by that, if you're staring down his barrels and the target indicator isn't on him, then he's a friendly. The targeting system will never target someone behind you if there's a better target ahead of you (even with the targeting modules).

Yeah...except when I push the button and hear "target acquired", that doesn't have to be him. That can be anyone in range of a friendly, remember?

If you've got your crosshairs on them, the system will try to target them first (unless say you're 700m out). So by that, if you're staring down his barrels and the target indicator isn't on him, then he's a friendly. The targeting system will never target someone behind you if there's a better target ahead of you (even with the targeting modules).

What target indicator? When I have no IFF markers, I have no target indicator either.

What target indicator? When I have no IFF markers, I have no target indicator either.

The target avatar in the top right of the HUD. If you've got that hunchie (the one who rounded the corner from you, from your example) in the target avatar, then he's obviously not friendly.

While the targeting system does take time for a target to appear in target info area, you'll (almost) immediately know if he's a bad guy if he starts shooting at you before you've got targeting info on him.

This is really just using stuff outside of the map+IFFs to work out a "secondary" targetting system. Unless you have absolutely no HUD, the targeting system info in the top right corner never fails (for me at least). So I use it as my targeting system whenever my IFFs go out. Modules and BAP really help in this regard.

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This. Having a different crosshair color for no target, friendly target, and enemy target would go a long way to helping.

This would definitely help. Or even take a cue from other FPS games where the reticle goes from "crosshair" to "big red X" to indicate that you're aiming at a teammate. So in the case of MWO, rather than a circle O, it would turn into an X or something like that.

What target indicator? When I have no IFF markers, I have no target indicator either.

The target avatar in the top right of the HUD. If you've got that hunchie (the one who rounded the corner from you, from your example) in the target avatar, then he's obviously not friendly.

While the targeting system does take time for a target to appear in target info area, you'll (almost) immediately know if he's a bad guy if he starts shooting at you before you've got targeting info on him.

This is really just using stuff outside of the map+IFFs to work out a "secondary" targetting system. Unless you have absolutely no HUD, the targeting system info in the top right corner never fails (for me at least). So I use it as my targeting system whenever my IFFs go out. Modules and BAP really help in this regard.

Ooooh. I get what your saying, but I typically don't get the target data either when the IFF, TI, and minimap are out. Maybe this is the "entire HUD offline" issue, but it's not like the HUD stuck off. It's like the minimap busted bug and the IFF/TI/TD bug separate but at the same time. I still had crosshairs in this case. With "HUD completely glitched off", I don't even get crosshairs.

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This. Having a different crosshair color for no target, friendly target, and enemy target would go a long way to helping.

This would definitely help. Or even take a cue from other FPS games where the reticle goes from "crosshair" to "big red X" to indicate that you're aiming at a teammate. So in the case of MWO, rather than a circle O, it would turn into an X or something like that.

Would also help whenever you see those big mech furballs and the TIs are so close that you're having some difficulty figuring out which OD mech you'd hit.

Ooooh. I get what your saying, but I typically don't get the target data either when the IFF, TI, and minimap are out. Maybe this is the "entire HUD offline" issue, but it's not like the HUD stuck off. It's like the minimap busted bug and the IFF/TI/TD bug separate but at the same time. I still had crosshairs in this case. With "HUD completely glitched off", I don't even get crosshairs.

Oh wow, I've never had a HUD issue that bad before. In that case, if I were you, I'd just shoot anything that moves. Chances are the CBills + XP from killing everybody will outweigh the penalizing negative CBills + XP from TK-ing everybody!

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Would also help whenever you see those big mech furballs and the TIs are so close that you're having some difficulty figuring out which OD mech you'd hit.

Why is the SRM ammo in the torso with the AC20? Might as well swap it with the AC20 ammo in one of the leg slots. That way, you've only lost your AC20 when the torso goes, not the AC20 *and* what's left of your SRM ammo.

Why is the SRM ammo in the torso with the AC20? Might as well swap it with the AC20 ammo in one of the leg slots. That way, you've only lost your AC20 when the torso goes, not the AC20 *and* what's left of your SRM ammo.

That is true, I could put the srm ammo in the legs both, and then put ac 20 ammo in the cockpit and torso, that way the ac20 ammo drains cockipit>torso and the srm ammo stays in the legs as there are more shots.

2 tons srm 6 ammo is 32 shots versus my 28 shots of ac 20.

stands to reason I should put the ammo for the more shooty in the legs.

As for the up close thing, have you not seen me play CPX?

Also, 44 is more than enough leg armor, I hope idiots spend time trying to leg a stalker, not like I was a jenner. While you are working those legs over my ac20 sits undamaged in my HUGE chest.\

Misery looks like one of the best chassis in the game. Pity the price is way too high.

The Jenner Champion is a great trial mech for anyone who wants to see what a good light mech is like and doesn't want to spend 10 million CB, with the XL engine and upgrades that you need to add to the stock Jenner price.

It does seem funny to me, how the Stalkers are lighter than the Highlanders.

I don't have enough MC to pick it up, but I can see the Misery being my first Stalker to try.

If/when there's another MC sale...And I agree that Premium time is probably a better use for MC, but honestly I am enjoying NOT having premium time. I felt pressure to play before my time ran out, whereas now I play when I can, and have more fun, even in PUGs.